1.
United States Constitution
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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government, Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government. Article Seven establishes the procedure used by the thirteen States to ratify it. In general, the first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty, the majority of the seventeen later amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government processes and procedures, Amendments to the United States Constitution, unlike ones made to many constitutions worldwide, are appended to the document. All four pages of the original U. S, according to the United States Senate, The Constitutions first three words—We the People—affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. From September 5,1774 to March 1,1781, the Continental Congress functioned as the government of the United States. The process of selecting the delegates for the First and Second Continental Congresses underscores the revolutionary role of the people of the colonies in establishing a governing body. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States and it was drafted by the Second Continental Congress from mid-1776 through late-1777, and ratification by all 13 states was completed by early 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation, the governments power was quite limited. The Confederation Congress could make decisions, but lacked enforcement powers, implementation of most decisions, including modifications to the Articles, required unanimous approval of all thirteen state legislatures. The Continental Congress could print money but the currency was worthless, Congress could borrow money, but couldnt pay it back. No state paid all their U. S. taxes, some paid nothing, some few paid an amount equal to interest on the national debt owed to their citizens, but no more. No interest was paid on debt owed foreign governments, by 1786, the United States would default on outstanding debts as their dates came due. Internationally, the Articles of Confederation did little to enhance the United States ability to defend its sovereignty, most of the troops in the 625-man United States Army were deployed facing – but not threatening – British forts on American soil. They had not been paid, some were deserting and others threatening mutiny, spain closed New Orleans to American commerce, U. S. officials protested, but to no effect. Barbary pirates began seizing American ships of commerce, the Treasury had no funds to pay their ransom, if any military crisis required action, the Congress had no credit or taxing power to finance a response. Domestically, the Articles of Confederation was failing to bring unity to the sentiments and interests of the various states
United States Constitution
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Page one of the original copy of the Constitution
United States Constitution
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Signing the Constitution, September 17, 1787
United States Constitution
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Territorial extent of the United States, 1790.
United States Constitution
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"We the People" in an original edition
2.
Article One of the United States Constitution
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Article One of the United States Constitution establishes the legislative branch of the federal government, the United States Congress. The Congress is a legislature consisting of a House of Representatives. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, Section 1 is a vesting clause that bestows federal legislative power exclusively to Congress. Similar clauses are found in Articles II and III, the former confers executive power upon the President alone, and the latter grants judicial power solely to the federal judiciary. These three articles create a separation of powers among the three branches of the federal government and this separation of powers, by which each department may exercise only its own constitutional powers and no others, is fundamental to the idea of a limited government accountable to the people. The separation of powers principle is particularly noteworthy in regard to the Congress, the Constitution declares that the Congress may exercise only those legislative powers herein granted within Article I. It also, by implied extension, prohibits Congress from delegating its authority to either of the other branches of government. That the power assigned to each branch must remain with that branch, although not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, Congress has also long asserted the power to investigate and the power to compel cooperation with an investigation. The Supreme Court has affirmed these powers as an implication of Congresss power to legislate, since the power to investigate is an aspect of Congresss power to legislate, it is as broad as Congresss powers to legislate. However, it is limited to inquiries that are in aid of the legislative function. The courts are highly deferential to Congresss exercise of its investigation powers, Congress has the power to investigate that which it could regulate, and the courts have interpreted Congresss regulatory powers broadly since the Great Depression. Section Two provides for the election of the House of Representatives every second year, since Representatives are to be chosen. At the time of its creation, the Constitution did not explicitly give citizens an inherent right to vote, rather, it provided that those qualified to vote in elections for the largest chamber of a states legislature may vote in Congressional elections. Since the Civil War, several amendments have been enacted that have curbed the states broad powers to set voter qualification standards. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on race, the Nineteenth Amendment prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on sex. The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits the revocation of voting due to the non-payment of a poll tax. The Twenty-sixth Amendment prohibits the denial of the right of US citizens, eighteen years of age or older, in the 1960s, the Supreme Court started to view voting as a fundamental right covered by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. There is no requirement that a Representative reside within the district in which he or she represents, although this is usually the case, there have been occasional exceptions
Article One of the United States Constitution
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Opening of the
112th Congress, House of Representatives chamber, January 5, 2011
Article One of the United States Constitution
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Gilded Age monopolies could no longer control the U.S. Senate (left) by corrupting state legislatures (right).
Article One of the United States Constitution
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Republican Senator
Orrin Hatch of Utah, current
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
Article One of the United States Constitution
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The
impeachment trial of President Clinton in 1999,
Chief Justice William Rehnquist presiding.
3.
Article Two of the United States Constitution
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Article Two of the United States Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government, which carries out and enforces federal laws. It includes the President, the Vice President, the Cabinet, executive departments, independent agencies, and other boards, commissions, the executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. Similar clauses are found in Article I and Article III, the former bestows federal legislative power exclusively to Congress, and the latter grants judicial power solely to the Supreme Court. These three articles create a separation of powers among the three branches of the federal government, the Presidents executive power is subject to two important limitations. First, the President lacks executive authority explicitly granted to Congress, hence the President cannot declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, or regulate commerce, even though executives had often wielded such authority in the past. In these instances, Congress retained portions of the power that the Continental Congress had wielded under the Articles of Confederation. Nor were they retained by the U. S. Congress as leftovers from the Articles of Confederation, government considers itself at war with a foreign political entity. By U. S. law, the limitation on that power is a requirement to notify specific members of Congress within 48 hours after the beginning of military operations. Once proper legal notification is given to the members of Congress, military action can continue. Second, specific constitutional provisions may check customary executive authority, notwithstanding his executive power, the President cannot make treaties or appointments without the advice and consent of the Senate. Likewise, the Presidents pardon power is limited to offenses against the United States and does not extend to impeachments or violations of state law. As treaties are by U. S. law official agreements with foreign governments recognized as only after Senate ratification. Additionally, since official treaties are specifically created under and by constitutional U. S. S. as far as presidential appointments, as with treaties a person is not officially and legally appointed to a position until their appointment is approved by the Senate. And again, the President nominates people for positions at his pleasure. Senate consent occurs when a supermajority of votes to approve. The head of the Executive Branch is the President, although also named in this first clause, the Vice President is not constitutionally vested with any executive power. Nonetheless, the Constitution dictates that the President and Vice President are to be elected at the time, for the same term. The framers intent was to preserve the independence of the branch should the person who was Vice President succeed to the duties of the presidency
Article Two of the United States Constitution
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President
Barack Obama signing legislation at the
Resolute desk
Article Two of the United States Constitution
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Certificate for the vote for
Rutherford B. Hayes and
William A. Wheeler for the State of Louisiana
Article Two of the United States Constitution
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Beginning of the clause in the 1787 document
Article Two of the United States Constitution
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In this
1944 poster,
Franklin Roosevelt (left) successfully campaigned for a fourth term. He was the only President who served more than two terms.
4.
Article Three of the United States Constitution
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Article Three of the United States Constitution establishes the judicial branch of the federal government. The judicial branch comprises the Supreme Court of the United States, the judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The number of justices is fixed by statute at nine, the one chief justice, proposals to divide the Supreme Court into separate panels have been made, but all have failed. Since all such proposals have failed, the Supreme Court has never ruled on the constitutionality of such a division, however, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote, the Constitution does not appear to authorize two or more Supreme Courts functioning in effect as separate courts. The Supreme Court is the federal court that is explicitly mandated by the Constitution. During the Constitutional Convention, a proposal was made for the Supreme Court to be the federal court. This proposal was rejected in favor of the provision that exists today, under this provision, the Congress may create inferior courts under both Article III, Section 1, and Article I, Section 8. The Article III courts, which are known as constitutional courts, were first created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. Article I courts, which are known as legislative courts, consist of regulatory agencies. Article III courts are the ones with judicial power. However, cases not requiring judicial determination may come before Article I courts, other cases, such as bankruptcy cases, have been held not to involve judicial determination, and may therefore go before Article I courts. Similarly, several courts in the District of Columbia, which is under the jurisdiction of the Congress, are Article I courts rather than Article III courts. This article was expressly extended to the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico by the U. S. Congress through Federal Law 89-571,80 Stat,764, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966. This transformed the article IV United States territorial court in Puerto Rico, created in 1900, Supreme Court for every sitting member over the age of 70½, up to a maximum of six. The Constitution is silent when it comes to judges of courts which have been abolished, the Judiciary Act of 1801 increased the number of courts to permit the Federalist President John Adams to appoint a number of Federalist judges before Thomas Jefferson took office. When Jefferson became President, the Congress abolished several of these courts, Judicial code of 1911 abolished circuit riding and transferred the circuit courts authority and jurisdiction to the district courts. The Constitution provides that judges shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, the term good behavior is interpreted to mean that judges may serve for the remainder of their lives, although they may resign or retire voluntarily. A judge may also be removed by impeachment and conviction by congressional vote, Three other judges, Mark W. Delahay, George W. English, and Samuel B
Article Three of the United States Constitution
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Secretary of State
James Madison, who won
Marbury v. Madison, but lost
Judicial review.
Article Three of the United States Constitution
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A nineteenth century painting of a jury.
Article Three of the United States Constitution
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Iva Toguri, known as
Tokyo Rose, and
Tomoya Kawakita were two Japanese Americans who were tried for treason after World War II.
5.
Article Five of the United States Constitution
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Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution, the nations frame of government, may be altered. Altering the Constitution consists of proposing an amendment or amendments and subsequent ratification, the vote of each state carries equal weight, regardless of a states population or length of time in the Union. Additionally, Article V temporarily shielded certain clauses in Article I from being amended and it also shields the first clause of Article I, Section 3, which provides for equal representation of the states in the Senate, from being amended, though not absolutely. Thirty-three amendments to the United States Constitution have been approved by the Congress, twenty-seven of these amendments have been ratified and are now part of the Constitution. The first ten amendments were adopted and ratified simultaneously and are known collectively as the Bill of Rights, six amendments adopted by Congress and sent to the states have not been ratified by the required number of states and are not part of the Constitution. Four of these amendments are still open and pending, one is closed and has failed by its own terms. All totaled, approximately 11,539 measures to amend the Constitution have been proposed in Congress since 1789, Article V provides two methods for amending the nations frame of government. The first method authorizes Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, to propose Constitutional amendments, the second method requires Congress, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, to call a convention for proposing amendments. When the 1st Congress considered a series of amendments, it was suggested that the two houses first adopt a resolution indicating that they deemed amendments necessary. Instead, both the House and the Senate proceeded directly to consideration of a joint resolution, thereby implying that both bodies deemed amendments to be necessary. Also, when proposed by James Madison, the amendments were designed to be interwoven into the relevant sections of the original document. Instead, they were approved by Congress and sent to the states for ratification as supplemental additions appended to it, both these precedents have been followed ever since. Regarding the amendment process crafted during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Madison,43, wrote, It guards equally against that extreme facility which would render the Constitution too mutable, and that extreme difficulty which might perpetuate its discovered faults. It moreover equally enables the General and the State Governments to originate the amendment of errors, as they may be pointed out by the experience on one side, each time the amendment process has been initiated since 1789, the first method has been used. All 33 amendments submitted to the states for ratification originated in the Congress, three times in the 20th century, concerted efforts were undertaken by proponents of particular amendments to secure the number of applications necessary to summon an Article V Convention. Once approved by Congress, the joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment does not require Presidential approval before it out to the states. Thus the president has no function in the process. In Hollingsworth v. Virginia, the Supreme Court affirmed that it is not necessary to place constitutional amendments before the President for approval or veto
Article Five of the United States Constitution
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Resolution proposing the
Nineteenth Amendment
6.
United States Bill of Rights
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The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the oftentimes bitter 1787–88 battle over ratification of the U. S, on June 8,1789, Representative James Madison introduced nine amendments to the constitution in the House of Representatives. Among his recommendations Madison proposed opening up the Constitution and inserting specific rights limiting the power of Congress in Article One, Seven of these limitations would become part of the ten ratified Bill of Rights amendments. Contrary to Madisons original proposal that the articles be incorporated into the body of the Constitution. Articles Three through Twelve were ratified as additions to the Constitution on December 15,1791, Article Two became part of the Constitution on May 5,1992, as the Twenty-seventh Amendment. Article One is technically still pending before the states, the door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply portions of the Bill of Rights to state, the process is known as incorporation. There are several original engrossed copies of the Bill of Rights still in existence, One of these is on permanent public display at the National Archives in Washington, D. C. However, the government that operated under the Articles of Confederation was too weak to adequately regulate the various conflicts that arose between the states. The Philadelphia Convention set out to correct weaknesses of the Articles that had been apparent even before the American Revolutionary War had been successfully concluded, the convention took place from May 14 to September 17,1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The convention convened in the Pennsylvania State House, and George Washington of Virginia was unanimously elected as president of the convention, the 55 delegates who drafted the Constitution are among the men known as the Founding Fathers of the new nation. Thomas Jefferson, who was Minister to France during the convention, Rhode Island refused to send delegates to the convention. However, the motion was defeated by a vote of the state delegations after only a brief discussion. Madison, then an opponent of a Bill of Rights, later explained the vote by calling the bills of rights parchment barriers that offered only an illusion of protection against tyranny. The quick rejection of this motion, however, later endangered the entire ratification process, thirty-nine delegates signed the finalized Constitution. Thirteen delegates left before it was completed, and three who remained at the convention until the end refused to sign it, Mason, Gerry, elbridge Gerry wrote the most popular Anti-Federalist tract, Hon. Mr. Gerrys Objections, which went through 46 printings, the essay particularly focused on the lack of a bill of rights in the proposed constitution, many were concerned that a strong national government was a threat to individual rights and that the president would become a king. Jefferson wrote to Madison advocating a Bill of Rights, Half a loaf is better than no bread, if we cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can
United States Bill of Rights
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United States Bill of Rights
United States Bill of Rights
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On June 5, 1788,
Patrick Henry spoke before
Virginia's ratification convention in opposition to the Constitution.
United States Bill of Rights
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James Madison, "Father of the Constitution" and first author of the Bill of Rights
7.
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
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It was adopted on December 15,1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was originally proposed to assuage Anti-Federalist opposition to Constitutional ratification, initially, the First Amendment applied only to laws enacted by the Congress, and many of its provisions were interpreted more narrowly than they are today. Beginning with Gitlow v. New York, the Supreme Court applied the First Amendment to states—a process known as incorporation—through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court overturned English common law precedent to increase the burden of proof for defamation and libel suits, commercial speech, however, is less protected by the First Amendment than political speech, and is therefore subject to greater regulation. The Free Press Clause protects publication of information and opinions, in Near v. Minnesota and New York Times v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protected against prior restraint—pre-publication censorship—in almost all cases. The Petition Clause protects the right to all branches and agencies of government for action. In addition to the right of assembly guaranteed by this clause, eight of the other thirteen states made similar pledges. However, these declarations were generally considered mere admonitions to state legislatures, after a brief debate, Masons proposal was defeated by a unanimous vote of the state delegations. For the constitution to be ratified, however, nine of the thirteen states were required to approve it in state conventions, opposition to ratification was partly based on the Constitutions lack of adequate guarantees for civil liberties. Constitution was eventually ratified by all thirteen states and this language was greatly condensed by Congress, and passed the House and Senate with almost no recorded debate, complicating future discussion of the Amendments intent. The First Amendment, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights, was submitted to the states for ratification on September 25,1789, and adopted on December 15,1791. In Reynolds v. United States the Supreme Court used these words to declare that it may be accepted almost as a declaration of the scope. Congress was deprived of all power over mere opinion, but was left free to reach actions which were in violation of social duties or subversive of good order. In these two sentences is found the distinction between what properly belongs to the church and what to the State. Originally, the First Amendment applied only to the federal government, Massachusetts, for example, was officially Congregationalist until the 1830s. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, in the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect a wall of separation between church and State. That wall must be high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach, in Torcaso v. Watkins, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution prohibits states and the federal government from requiring any kind of religious test for public office
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Bill of Rights in the
National Archives
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
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James Madison, drafter of the
Bill of Rights
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
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U.S. President
Thomas Jefferson wrote in his correspondence of "a wall of separation between church and State".
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Inscription of the First Amendment (December 15, 1791) in front of
Independence Hall in Philadelphia
8.
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
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State and local governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from infringing this right per the incorporation of the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment was based partially on the right to keep, in the twenty-first century, the amendment has been subjected to renewed academic inquiry and judicial interest. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that held the amendment protects an individual right to possess. Despite these decisions, the debate between various organizations regarding gun control and gun rights continues, there are several versions of the text of the Second Amendment, each with capitalization or punctuation differences. Differences exist between the drafted and ratified copies, the copies on display, and various published transcriptions. The importance of these differences has been the source of debate regarding the meaning and interpretation of the amendment, one version was passed by the Congress, and a slightly different version was ratified. Ultimately, the Catholic James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution, and his successors, the text of the English Bill of Rights of 1689 includes language protecting the right of Protestants against disarmament by the Crown. This document states, That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and it also contained text that aspired to bind future Parliaments, though under English constitutional law no Parliament can bind any later Parliament. The statement in the English Bill of Rights concerning the right to arms is often quoted only in the passage where it is written as above. By causing severall good Subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law. That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law. The historical link between the English Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment, which both codify an existing right and do not create a new one, has been acknowledged by the U. S. Supreme Court. The English Bill of Rights includes the proviso that arms must be as allowed by law and this has been the case before and after the passage of the Bill. Before and after the English Bill of Rights, the government could always disarm any individual or class of individuals it considered dangerous to the peace of the realm. The fifth and last auxiliary right of the subject, that I shall at present mention, is that of having arms for their defence, suitable to their condition and degree, which is also declared by the same statute 1 W. & M. st.2. Some in the United States have preferred the rights argument arguing that the English Bill of Rights had granted a right, the need to have arms for self-defence was not really in question. Without a regular army and police force, it had been the duty of men to keep watch and ward at night and to confront. Every subject had an obligation to protect the peace and assist in the suppression of riots
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Bill of Rights in the
National Archives.
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Close up image of the Second Amendment
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Ideals that helped to inspire the Second Amendment in part are symbolized by the
minutemen.
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
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James Madison (left) is known as the "Father of the Constitution" and "Father of the Bill of Rights" while
George Mason (right) with Madison is also known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights"
9.
Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Third Amendment to the United States Constitution places restrictions on the quartering of soldiers in private homes without the owners consent, forbidding the practice in peacetime. The Third Amendment was introduced in Congress in 1789 by James Madison as a part of the United States Bill of Rights, in response to Anti-Federalist objections to the new Constitution. Congress proposed the amendment to the states on September 28,1789, and by December 15,1791, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson announced the adoption of the amendment on March 1,1792. The amendment is one of the least controversial of the Constitution and is rarely litigated, to date, it has never been the primary basis of a Supreme Court decision, though it was the basis of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit case Engblom v. Carey. After the Boston Tea Party, the Quartering Act of 1774 was enacted, One of the Intolerable Acts that pushed the colonies toward revolution, it authorized British troops to be housed wherever necessary, including in private homes. The quartering of troops was cited as one of the grievances in the United States Declaration of Independence. George Mason, a Constitutional Convention delegate and the drafter of Virginias Declaration of Rights, after a brief debate, Masons proposal was defeated by a unanimous vote of the state delegations. For the constitution to be ratified, however, nine of the thirteen states were required to approve it in state conventions, opposition to ratification was partly based on the Constitutions lack of adequate guarantees for civil liberties. Several state conventions specifically proposed a provision against the quartering of troops in private homes, at the 1788 Virginia Ratifying Convention, Patrick Henry stated, One of our first complaints, under the former government, was the quartering of troops among us. This was one of the reasons for dissolving the connection with Great Britain. Here we may have troops in time of peace and they may be billeted in any manner — to tyrannize, oppress, and crush us. However, the amendment ultimately passed Congress almost unchanged and by unanimous vote, Congress reduced Madisons proposed twenty amendments to twelve, and these were submitted to the states for ratification on September 25,1789. By the time the Bill of Rights was submitted to the states for ratification, many Federalists, who had previously opposed a Bill of Rights, now supported the Bill as a means of silencing the Anti-Federalists most effective criticism. Many Anti-Federalists, in contrast, now opposed it, realizing that the Bills adoption would greatly lessen the chances of a constitutional convention. Anti-Federalists such as Richard Henry Lee also argued that the Bill left the most objectionable portions of the Constitution, such as the judiciary and direct taxation. On November 20,1789, New Jersey ratified eleven of the amendments, rejecting Article II. On December 19 and 22, respectively, Maryland and North Carolina ratified all twelve amendments, in February through June 1790, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island ratified eleven of the amendments, though all three rejected the amendment on Congressional pay raises. Virginia initially postponed its debate, but after Vermont was admitted to the Union in 1791, Vermont ratified on November 3,1791, approving all twelve amendments, and Virginia finally followed on December 15,1791
Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Bill of Rights in the
National Archives
Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
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James Madison, drafter of the
Bill of Rights
Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Justice
William O. Douglas
10.
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The Fourth Amendment was introduced in Congress in 1789 by James Madison, along with the amendments in the Bill of Rights. Congress submitted the amendment to the states on September 28,1789, by December 15,1791, the necessary three-fourths of the states had ratified it. On March 1,1792, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson announced the adoption of the amendment, the amendment was held to apply to the states in Mapp v. Ohio. Under the Fourth Amendment, search and seizure should be limited in scope according to information supplied to the issuing court. The exclusionary rule is one way the amendment is enforced, established in Weeks v. United States, this rule holds that evidence obtained through a Fourth Amendment violation is generally inadmissible at criminal trials. Evidence discovered as a result of an illegal search may also be inadmissible as fruit of the poisonous tree. Like many other areas of American law, the Fourth Amendment finds its roots in English legal doctrine. Sir Edward Coke, in Semaynes case, famously stated, The house of one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury. Entick filed suit in Entick v Carrington, argued before the Court of Kings Bench in 1765, during what scholar William Cuddihy called the colonial epidemic of general searches, the authorities possessed almost unlimited power to search for anything at any time, with very little oversight. In 1756, the colony of Massachusetts enacted legislation that barred the use of general warrants and this represented the first law in American history curtailing the use of seizure power. The act also permitted the use of a general warrant known as a writ of assistance, allowing tax collectors to search the homes of colonists and seize prohibited and uncustomed goods. A crisis erupted over the writs of assistance on December 27,1760 when the news of King George IIs death on October 23 arrived in Boston. All writs automatically expired six months after the death of the King and would have had to be re-issued by George III, in mid-January 1761, a group of over 50 merchants represented by James Otis petitioned the court to have hearings on the issue. During the five-hour hearing on February 23,1761, Otis vehemently denounced British colonial policies, however, the court ruled against Otis. Future US President John Adams, who was present in the courtroom when Otis spoke, the governor overturned the legislation, finding it contrary to English law and parliamentary sovereignty. Seeing the danger general warrants presented, the Virginia Declaration of Rights explicitly forbade the use of general warrants, by 1784, eight state constitutions contained a provision against general warrants. George Mason, a Constitutional Convention delegate and the drafter of Virginias Declaration of Rights, after a brief debate, Masons proposal was defeated by a unanimous vote of the state delegations
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Bill of Rights in the
National Archives
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden established the English common law precedent against general search warrants.
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Massachusetts lawyer
James Otis protested British use of general warrants in the American colonies.
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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James Madison, drafter of the Bill of Rights
11.
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights and protects a person from being compelled to be a witness against themselves in a criminal case. A defendant cannot be compelled to become a witness at his own trial, if, however, they choose to testify, they are not entitled to their right, and inferences can be drawn from a refusal to answer a question during cross-examination. The Amendment requires that felonies be tried only upon indictment by a grand jury, federal grand juries can force people to take the witness stand, but defendants in those proceedings have Fifth Amendment privileges until they choose to answer any question. To claim the privilege for failure to answer when being interviewed by police, the Amendments Double Jeopardy Clause provides the right to be tried only once in federal court for the same offense. The Amendment also has a Due Process Clause as well as an equal protection requirement. Finally, the Amendment requires that the power of eminent domain be coupled with just compensation for those whose property is taken and this draft was edited by Congress, all the material before the first ellipsis was placed at the end, and some of the wording was modified. After approval by Congress, the amendment was ratified by the states, the grand jury is a pre-constitutional common law institution, and a constitutional fixture in its own right exclusively embracing common law. The process applies to the states to the extent that the states have incorporated grand juries and/or common law, most states have an alternative civil process. Many constitutional restrictions that apply in court or in other situations do not apply during grand jury proceedings, also, an individual does not have the right to have an attorney present in the grand jury room during hearings. Currently, federal law permits the trial of misdemeanors without indictments, additionally, in trials of non-capital felonies, the prosecution may proceed without indictments if the defendants waive their Fifth Amendment right. Grand jury indictments may be amended by the only in limited circumstances. In Ex Parte Bain,121 U. S.1, United States v. Miller,471 U. S.130 partly reversed Ex parte Bain, now, an indictments scope may be narrowed by the prosecution. Thus, lesser included charges may be dropped, but new charges may not be added, the Grand Jury Clause of the Fifth Amendment does not protect those serving in the armed forces, whether during wartime or peacetime. Members of the militia called up to serve with federal forces are not protected under the clause either. In OCallahan v. Parker,395 U. S.258 and that decision was overturned in 1987, when the Court held that members of the militia in actual service may be tried for any offense without indictments. The grand jury indictment clause of the Fifth Amendment has not been incorporated under the Fourteenth Amendment and this means that the grand jury requirement applies only to felony charges in the federal court system. While many states do employ grand juries, no defendant has a Fifth Amendment right to a jury for criminal charges in state court. States are free to abolish grand juries, and many have replaced them with preliminary hearing, the historical origin of infamous crime comes from the infamia, a punishment under Roman law by which a citizen was deprived his citizenship
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Bill of Rights in the
National Archives.
12.
Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions. The Supreme Court has applied the protections of this amendment to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Criminal defendants have the right to a speedy trial. In Barker v. Wingo,407 U. S.514, the four factors are, Length of delay. A delay of a year or more from the date on which the speedy trial right attaches was termed presumptively prejudicial, but the Court has never explicitly ruled that any absolute time limit applies. The prosecution may not excessively delay the trial for its own advantage, time and manner in which the defendant has asserted his right. If a defendant agrees to the delay when it works to his own benefit, degree of prejudice to the defendant which the delay has caused. The Court held that, since the trial is the state action which violates the defendants rights. Thus, a reversal or dismissal of a case on speedy trial grounds means that no further prosecution for the alleged offense can take place. In Sheppard v. Maxwell,384 U. S.333, in cases where excess publicity would serve to undermine the defendants right to due process, limitations can be put on public access to the proceedings. According to Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court,478 U. S, the right to a jury has always depended on the nature of the offense with which the defendant is charged. Petty offenses—those punishable by imprisonment for no more than six months—are not covered by the jury requirement, even where multiple petty offenses are concerned, the total time of imprisonment possibly exceeding six months, the right to a jury trial does not exist. Also, in the United States, except for offenses, minors are usually tried in a juvenile court, which lessens the sentence allowed, but forfeits the right to a jury. ”Therefore, it was held that juries had to be composed of twelve persons. When, under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court extended the right to a trial by jury to defendants in state courts, the Sixth Amendment mandates unanimity in a federal jury trial. Thus, states are not mandated to require jury unanimity, unless the jury has only six members, the Sixth Amendment requires juries to be impartial. Impartiality has been interpreted as requiring individual jurors to be unbiased, at voir dire, each side may question potential jurors to determine any bias, and challenge them if the same is found, the court determines the validity of these challenges for cause. Defendants may not challenge a conviction because a challenge for cause was denied incorrectly if they had the opportunity to use peremptory challenges. In Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado, the Supreme Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment requires a court in a trial to investigate whether a jurys guilty verdict was based on racial bias. For a guilty verdict to be based on the racial bias of a juror
Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Bill of Rights in the
National Archives
13.
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment. The U. S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendments Cruel, the phrases in this amendment originated in the English Bill of Rights of 1689. This amendment was adopted on December 15,1791, along with the rest of the United States Bill of Rights. The amendment as proposed by Congress in 1789 reads as follows, Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel, the Eighth Amendment was adopted, as part of the Bill of Rights, in 1791. Oates was sentenced to imprisonment including an annual ordeal of being out for two days pillory plus one day of whipping while tied to a moving cart. The Oates case eventually became a topic of the U. S. Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, the punishment of Oates involved ordinary penalties collectively imposed in a barbaric, excessive and bizarre manner. The reason why the judges in Oates perjury case were not allowed to impose the penalty may be because such a punishment would have deterred even honest witnesses from testifying in later cases. England’s declaration against cruel and unusual punishments was approved by Parliament in February 1689, Parliament then enacted the English Bill of Rights into law in December 1689. Members of parliament characterized the punishment in the Oates case as not just barbarous and inhuman, in England, the cruel and unusual punishments clause was a limitation on the discretion of judges, and required judges to adhere to precedent. For the bill of rights has particularly declared, that excessive fines ought not to be imposed, nor cruel, Virginia adopted this provision of the English Bill of Rights in the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and the Virginia convention that ratified the U. S. Constitution recommended in 1788 that this also be included in the Constitution. Virginians such as George Mason and Patrick Henry wanted to ensure that this restriction would also be applied as a limitation on Congress, Mason warned that, otherwise, Congress may inflict unusual and severe punishments. Henry emphasized that Congress should not be allowed to depart from precedent, What has distinguished our ancestors. --That they would not admit of tortures, or cruel, but Congress may introduce the practice of the civil law, in preference to that of the common law. They may introduce the practice of France, Spain, and Germany, ultimately, Henry and Mason prevailed, and the Eighth Amendment was adopted. James Madison changed ought to shall, when he proposed the amendment to Congress in 1789, in England, sheriffs originally determined whether to grant bail to criminal suspects. Since they tended to abuse their power, Parliament passed a statute in 1275 whereby bailable and non-bailable offenses were defined, the Kings judges often subverted the provisions of the law. It was held that an individual may be held without bail upon the Sovereigns command, eventually, the Petition of Right of 1628 argued that the King did not have such authority. Thereafter, judges were compelled to set bail, but they often required impracticable amounts, finally, the English Bill of Rights held that excessive bail ought not to be required
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Pertinent part of the English Bill of Rights, December 1689.
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The American Bill of Rights in the
National Archives, March 1789
14.
Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution addresses rights, retained by the people, that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. It is part of the Bill of Rights, the amendment as proposed by Congress in 1789 reads as follows, The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Constitution was put to the states for ratification after being signed on September 17,1787, for example, in Federalist 84, Alexander Hamilton asked, Why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do. Likewise, James Madison explained to Thomas Jefferson, I conceive that in a certain degree, the rights in question are reserved by the manner in which the federal powers are granted by Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution. But that they may be construed either as making exceptions to the powers where this shall be the case. This proposal ultimately led to the Ninth Amendment and this is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard against the admission of a bill of rights into this system, but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution, like Alexander Hamilton, Madison was concerned that enumerating various rights could enlarge the powers delegated by the constitution. This was a form of the Ninth Amendment that borrowed language from the Virginia proposal. The final text of the Ninth Amendment, like Madisons draft, the character of those other rights was indicated by Madison in his speech introducing the Bill of Rights, It has been said, by way of objection to a bill of rights. I admit that these arguments are not entirely without foundation, the Ninth Amendment became part of the Constitution on December 15,1791 upon ratification by three-fourths of the states. The U. S. Supreme Court explained this, in U. S. Public Workers v. Mitchell 330 U. S.75, If granted power is found, necessarily the objection of invasion of rights, reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. The Supreme Court held in Barron v. Baltimore that the Bill of Rights was enforceable by the courts only against the federal government. Thus, the Ninth Amendment originally applied only to the federal government, some jurists have asserted that the Ninth Amendment is relevant to interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. I do not mean to imply that the, Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of rights protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government. Cf. United Public Workers v. Mitchell,330 U. S.75, in support of his interpretation of the Ninth, Goldberg quoted from Madisons speech in the House of Representatives as well as from Alexander Hamiltons Federalist Paper No. 84, I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted, for why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do
Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Bill of Rights in the
National Archives
15.
Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15,1791. All remaining powers are reserved for the states or the people, the amendment was proposed by Congress in 1789 during its first term following the Constitutional Convention and ratification of the Constitution. In drafting this amendment, its framers had two purposes in mind, first, as a rule of construction, and second. When a vote on this version of the amendment with expressly delegated was defeated, Connecticut Representative Roger Sherman drafted the Tenth Amendment in its ratified form, shermans language allowed for an expansive reading of the powers implied by the Necessary and Proper Clause. Perhaps words which may define this more precisely than the whole of the instrument now does, I admit they may be deemed unnecessary, but there can be no harm in making such a declaration, if gentlemen will allow that the fact is as stated. I am sure I understand it so, and do therefore propose it, the states decided to ratify the Tenth Amendment, and thus declined to signal that there are unenumerated powers in addition to unenumerated rights. The amendment rendered unambiguous what had previously been at most a mere suggestion or implication, was appended in handwriting by the clerk of the Senate as the Bill of Rights circulated between the two Houses of Congress. The Tenth Amendment, which makes explicit the idea that the government is limited to only the powers granted in the Constitution, has been declared to be a truism by the Supreme Court. In United States v. Sprague the Supreme Court asserted that the amendment added nothing to the as originally ratified. An often-repeated quote, from United States v. Darby Lumber,312 U. S.100,124, reads as follows, The amendment states, the Supreme Court rarely declares laws unconstitutional for violating the Tenth Amendment. In the modern era, the Court has only done so where the government compels the states to enforce federal statutes. In 1992, in New York v. United States,505 U. S.144, for only the time in 55 years. The case challenged a portion of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985, the act provided three incentives for states to comply with statutory obligations to provide for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The first two incentives were monetary, the Court, in a 6–3 decision, ruled that the imposition of that obligation on the states violated the Tenth Amendment. However, Congress cannot directly compel states to enforce federal regulations, in 1998, the Court again ruled that the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act violated the Tenth Amendment (Printz v. United States,521 U. S.898. The act required state and local law enforcement officials to conduct checks on people attempting to purchase handguns. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, applied New York v. United States to show that the law violated the Tenth Amendment, since the act forced participation of the States executive in the actual administration of a federal program, it was unconstitutional. Hence, in the aggregate, if farmers were allowed to consume their own wheat, in Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Court changed the analytic framework to be applied in Tenth Amendment cases
Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Bill of Rights in the
National Archives
16.
Corwin Amendment
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It was passed by the 36th Congress on March 2,1861, and submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. Senator William H. Seward of New York introduced the amendment in the Senate and it was one of several measures considered by Congress in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to attract the seceding states back into the Union and in an attempt to entice border slave states to stay. Three fifths of all other Persons, The Migration and Importation of such Persons, in the Congressional session that began in December 1860, more than 200 resolutions with respect to slavery, including 57 resolutions proposing constitutional amendments, were introduced in Congress. Most represented compromises designed to military conflict. Mississippi Democratic Senator Jefferson Davis proposed one that protected property rights in slaves. Corwin proposed his own text as a substitute and those who opposed him failed on a vote of 68 to 121, the House then declined to give the resolution the required two-thirds vote, with a tally of 120 to 61, and then of 123 to 71. On February 28,1861, however, the House approved Corwins version by a vote of 133 to 65, missouri Democrat John S. Phelps answered, Does the gentleman desire to know whether he shall be prohibited from committing that crime. On March 2,1861, the United States Senate adopted it, with no changes, since proposed constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority,132 votes were required in the House and 24 in the Senate. The Senators and Representatives from the seven states that had already declared their secession from the Union did not vote on the Corwin Amendment. The resolution called for the amendment to be submitted to the state legislatures, the Corwin Amendment was the second proposed Thirteenth Amendment submitted to the states by Congress. The first was the similarly ill-fated Titles of Nobility Amendment in 1810, out-going President James Buchanan, a Democrat, endorsed the Corwin Amendment by taking the unprecedented step of signing it. Holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express, just weeks prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, Lincoln sent a letter to each states governor transmitting the proposed amendment, noting that Buchanan had approved it. On February 8,1864, during the 38th Congress, with the prospects for a Union victory improving, anthony of Rhode Island introduced Senate Resolution No.25 to withdraw the Corwin Amendment from further consideration by the state legislatures and to halt the ratification process. That same day, Anthonys joint resolution was referred to the Senates Committee on the Judiciary, however, West Virginia did not ratify the amendment after it became a state in 1863. The joint resolution was referred to the Houses Committee on Constitutional Amendments on March 7,1963, as a result, the later Reconstruction Amendments would not have been permissible, as they abolish or interfere with the domestic institution of the states. List of amendments to the United States Constitution List of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution Slavery in the United States Peace Conference of 1861 Bryant, stopping Time, The Pro-Slavery and Irrevocable Thirteenth Amendment. Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, crofts, Daniel W. Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery, The Other Thirteenth Amendment and the Struggle to Save the Union. University of North Carolina Press Books, comprehensive scholarly history of Corwin amendment
Corwin Amendment
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The Corwin Amendment as it was approved by the House of Representatives, February 28, 1861, and the Senate, March 2, 1861.
Corwin Amendment
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Representative Thomas Corwin of
Ohio, author and namesake of the amendment.
17.
Child Labor Amendment
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Interest in the amendment waned following the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which implemented federal regulation of child labor with the Supreme Courts approval in 1941. The amendment was itself the subject of a 1939 Supreme Court decision, Coleman v. Miller, as Congress did not set a time limit for its ratification, the amendment is still technically pending before the states. Ratification by an additional ten states would be necessary for this amendment to come into force, the Congress shall have power to limit, regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age. The power of the several States is unimpaired by this article except that the operation of State laws shall be suspended to the extent necessary to effect to legislation enacted by the Congress. The Supreme Court found this law unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart, later that year, Congress attempted to levy a tax on businesses with employees under the ages of 14 or 16, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture. It became apparent that an amendment would be necessary for such legislation to overcome the Courts objections. The amendment was offered by Ohio Republican Congressman Israel Moore Foster on April 26,1924, during the 68th Congress, in the form of House Joint Resolution No.184. House Joint Resolution No.184 was adopted by the United States House of Representatives on April 26,1924 and it was then adopted by the Senate on June 2,1924, with a vote of 61 yeas,23 nays and 12 not voting. And with that, the constitutional amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification pursuant to Article V of the Constitution. Although the act, on the part of state legislatures, of rejecting a constitutional amendment has no legal recognition. Presently, there being 50 states in the Union, the amendment will remain inoperative unless it is ratified by an additional 10 states to reach the threshold of 38 states. Only five states adopted the amendment in the 1920s, ten of the states initially balked, then re-examined their position during the 1930s and decided to ratify. The common legal opinion on federal labor regulation reversed in the 1930s. Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 regulating the employment of those under 16 or 18 years of age, after this shift, the amendment has been described as moot and effectively part of the Constitution, the movement for it had concluded. In 1933 J. a 1925 Time magazine article discussing 1920s attempts to ratify the Amendment
Child Labor Amendment
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Ratification status of the Child Labor Amendment
18.
District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment
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This proposed amendment was proposed by the Congress on August 22,1978. It was ratified by only 16 states by the time of its expiration on August 22,1985,22 ratifications short of the needed 38 in order for the amendment to have been adopted. This amendment is also notable for being the most recent amendment to have sent to the states for their consideration. The exercise of the rights and powers conferred under this article shall be by the people of the District constituting the seat of government, the twenty-third article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. Representative Don Edwards of California proposed House Joint Resolution 554 in the 95th Congress, the United States House of Representatives passed it on March 2,1978, by a 289–127 vote, with 18 not voting. The United States Senate passed it on August 22,1978, by a 67–32 vote, with that, the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. By placing the ratification deadline in the text of the amendment the deadline could not be extended. Ratification by the legislatures of at least 38 of the 50 states by August 22,1985, was necessary for the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment to become part of the Constitution. During the seven-year period specified by Congress it was ratified by only 16 states, full representation in both houses of the Congress. Also, this amendment would have repealed the Twenty-third Amendment. In contrast, this amendment would have provided Washington, D. C. full participation in the Electoral College. Finally, the amendment would have also allowed the Council of the District of Columbia. The amendment would neither have made Washington, D. C. a state, District of Columbia voting rights List of amendments to the United States Constitution List of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution
District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment
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Ratification status of the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment
19.
History of the United States Constitution
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The United States Constitution was written in 1787 during the Philadelphia Convention. The old Congress set the rules the new government followed in terms of writing and ratifying the new constitution, after ratification in eleven states, in 1789 its elected officers of government assembled in New York City, replacing the Articles of Confederation government. The original Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times, the meaning of the Constitution is interpreted and extended by judicial review in the federal courts. The original parchment copies are on display at the National Archives Building, two alternative plans were developed in Convention. The nationalist majority, soon to be called Federalists, put forth the Virginia Plan, the old patriots, later called Anti-Federalists, advocated the New Jersey Plan, a purely federal proposal, based on providing each state with equal representation. The Connecticut Compromise allowed for both plans to work together, other controversies developed regarding slavery and a Bill of Rights in the original document. The drafted Constitution was submitted to the Confederation Congress and it in turn forwarded the Constitution as drafted to the states for ratification by the Constitutional method proposed. The Federalist Papers provided background and justification for the Constitution, once the Confederation Congress certified that eleven states had ratified the Constitution, elections were held, the new government began on March 4,1789, and the Articles Congress dissolved itself. Criticism over the life of the Constitution has centered on expanding democracy, Independence was declared on July 4,1776, the preparation of a plan of confederation was postponed. Although the Declaration was a statement of principles, it did not create a government or even a framework for how politics would be carried out and it was the Articles of Confederation that provided the necessary structure to the new nation during and after the American Revolution. The Declaration, however, did set forth the ideas of natural rights, the era of the Declaration of Independence is sometimes called the Continental Congress period. John Adams famously estimated as many as one-third of those resident in the thirteen colonies were patriots. Republican government and personal liberty for the people were to overspread the New World continents and to last forever and these goals were influenced by Enlightenment philosophy. It was rooted in opposition to monarchy they saw as venal, to these partisans, voting was the only permanent defense of the people. Elected terms for legislature were cut to one year, for Virginias Governor, property requirements for suffrage for men were reduced to taxes on their tools in some states. Free blacks in New York could vote if they owned enough property, New Hampshire was thinking of abolishing all voting requirements for men but residency and religion. In some states, senators were now elected by the voters as the larger electorate for the House. These radical Whigs were called the people out-of-doors and they distrusted not only royal authority, but any small, secretive group as being unrepublican
History of the United States Constitution
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Page one of the original copy of the
United States Constitution
History of the United States Constitution
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Independence Hall, south wing. Philadelphia
History of the United States Constitution
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Washington as
Convention President
History of the United States Constitution
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George Washington Convention President
20.
Constitutional Convention (United States)
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The Constitutional Convention took place from May 25 to September 17,1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the Convention, the result of the Convention was the creation of the United States Constitution, placing the Convention among the most significant events in the history of the United States. Most of the time during the Convention was spent on deciding these issues, while the powers of legislature, executive, once the Convention began, the delegates first agreed on the principles of the Convention, then they agreed on Madisons Virginia Plan and began to modify it. A Committee of Detail assembled during the July 4 recess eventually produced a draft of the constitution. Most of the draft remained in place, and can be found in the final version of the constitution. After the final issues were resolved, the Committee on Style produced the final version, before the Constitution was drafted, the nearly 4 million inhabitants of the 13 newly independent states were governed under the Articles of Confederation, created by the Second Continental Congress. It soon became evident to all that the chronically underfunded Confederation government. As the Articles of Confederation could only be amended by unanimous vote of the states, in addition, the Articles gave the weak federal government no taxing power, it was wholly dependent on the states for its money, and had no power to force delinquent states to pay. Once the immediate task of winning the American Revolutionary War had passed, the states began to look to their own interests, another impetus for the convention was Shays Rebellion. A political conflict between Boston merchants and rural farmers over issues such as property seizures for tax debts had broken out into an open rebellion. This rebellion was led by a former Revolutionary War captain, Daniel Shays, himself a farmer with tax debts. The rebellion took months for Massachusetts to put down completely, in September 1786, at the Annapolis Convention, delegates from five states called for a Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia on May 14,1787, Rhode Island, fearing that the Convention would work to its disadvantage, boycotted the Convention and, when the Constitution was put to the states, initially refused to ratify it. James Madison arrived first, and soon most of the Virginia delegation arrived, while waiting for the other delegates, the Virginia delegation produced the Virginia Plan, which was designed and written by James Madison. On May 25, the delegations convened in the Pennsylvania State House, George Washington was unanimously elected president of the Convention, and it was agreed that the discussions and votes would be kept secret until the conclusion of the meeting. Although William Jackson was elected as secretary, his records were brief, Madisons Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, supplemented by the notes of Robert Yates, remain the most complete record of the Convention. Throughout the debate, delegates constantly referred to precedents from history in support of their position, most commonly, they referred to the history of England, in particular the Glorious Revolution, classical history, and recent precedents from Holland and Germany. Outside the Convention in Philadelphia, there was a convening of the Society of the Cincinnati
Constitutional Convention (United States)
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Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States
Constitutional Convention (United States)
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Independence Hall's Assembly Room
Constitutional Convention (United States)
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James Madison, the author of the Virginia Plan
Constitutional Convention (United States)
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Front side of the Virginia Plan
21.
Federalism in the United States
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Federalism in the United States is the constitutional relationship between U. S. state governments and the national government of the United States. Since the founding of the country, and particularly with the end of the American Civil War, power shifted away from the states, the progression of federalism includes dual, state-centered, and new federalism. Federalism was a solution for the problems with the Articles of Confederation which gave little practical authority to the federal government. The movement was strengthened by the reaction to Shays Rebellion of 1786–1787. The rebellion was fueled by an economy that was created, in part. Moreover, the government had proven incapable of raising an army to quell the rebellion. This convention almost immediately dropped its original mandate and instead set about constructing a new Constitution of the United States, once the convention concluded and released the Constitution for public consumption, the Federalist movement became focused on getting the Constitution ratified. The Federalist Papers remain one of the most important set of documents in American history and those opposed to the new Constitution became known as the Anti-Federalists. The Anti-Federalist critique soon centered on the absence of a bill of rights, because George Washington lent his prestige to the Constitution and because of the ingenuity and organizational skills of its proponents, the Constitution was ratified by all the states. The outgoing Congress of the Confederation scheduled elections for the new government, in 1789, Congress submitted twelve articles of amendment to the states. Ten of these articles, written by congressional committees, achieved passage on December 15,1791, the Tenth Amendment set the guidelines for federalism in the United States. As soon as the first Federalist movement dissipated, a second one sprang up to take its place and this one was based on the policies of Alexander Hamilton and his allies for a stronger national government, a loose construction of the Constitution, and a mercantile economy. While the Federalist movement of the 1780s and the Federalist Party were distinct entities, the Democratic-Republican Party, the opposition to the Federalist Party, emphasized the fear that a strong national government was a threat to the liberties of the people. They stressed that the debt created by the new government would bankrupt the country. These themes resonated with the Anti-Federalists, the opposition to the Federalist movement of the 1780s, as Norman Risjord has documented for Virginia, of the supporters of the Constitution in 1788, 69% joined the Federalist party, while nearly all of the opponents joined the Republicans. 71% of Thomas Jeffersons supporters in Virginia were former anti-federalists who continued to fear centralized government, in short, nearly all of the opponents of the Federalist movement became opponents of the Federalist Party. The movement reached its zenith with the election of an overtly Federalist President, however, with the defeat of Adams in the election of 1800 and the death of Hamilton, the Federalist Party began a long decline from which it never recovered. The threat of secession was also proposed during these secret meetings, three delegates were sent to Washington, DC to negotiate New Englands terms only to discover the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war with the British
Federalism in the United States
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The United States is composed of fifty self-governing states and several territories.
22.
Republicanism in the United States
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Republicanism is the guiding political philosophy of the United States. It has been a part of American civic thought since its founding. American republicanism was founded and first practiced by the Founding Fathers in the 18th century, for them, according to one team of historians, republicanism represented more than a particular form of government. It was a way of life, an ideology, an uncompromising commitment to liberty. Republicanism was based on Ancient Greco-Roman, Renaissance, and English models and it formed the basis for the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, as well as the Gettysburg Address. The term republicanism is derived from the republic, but the two words have different meanings. A republic is a form of government, republicanism refers to the values of the citizens in a republic, two major parties have used the term in their name – the Democratic-Republican party of Thomas Jefferson, and the current Republican Party, founded in 1854. The colonial intellectual and political leaders in the 1760s and 1770s closely read history to compare governments, the Revolutionists were especially concerned with the history of liberty in England and were primarily influenced by the country party. Country party relied heavily on the classical republicanism of Roman heritage, it celebrated the ideals of duty and it drew heavily on ancient Greek city-state and Roman republican examples. This approach produced a political ideology Americans called republicanism, which was widespread in America by 1775, Republicanism was the distinctive political consciousness of the entire Revolutionary generation. American republicanism was centered on limiting corruption and greed, Virtue was of the utmost importance for citizens and representatives. Revolutionaries took a lesson from ancient Rome, they knew it was necessary to avoid the luxury that had destroyed the Empire, a virtuous citizen was one who ignored monetary compensation and made a commitment to resist and eradicate corruption. The Republic was sacred, therefore, it is necessary to serve the state in a representative way, ignoring self-interest. Republicanism required the service of those who were willing to give up their own interests for a common good, virtuous citizens needed to be strong defenders of liberty and challenge the corruption and greed in government. The duty of the virtuous citizen became a foundation for the American Revolution, the commitment of most Americans to republican values and to their property rights helped bring about the American Revolution. The greatest threat to liberty was thought by many to be corruption – not just in London, the colonists associated it with luxury and, especially, inherited aristocracy, which they condemned. Historian Thomas Kidd argues that during the Revolution Christians linked their religion to republicanism and he states, With the onset of the revolutionary crisis, a major conceptual shift convinced Americans across the theological spectrum that God was raising up America for some special purpose. Kidd further argues that new blend of Christian and republican ideology led religious traditionalists to embrace wholesale the concept of republican virtue, as virtuous republicans, citizens had a growing moral obligation to eradicate the corruption they saw in the monarchy
Republicanism in the United States
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The
Capitol exalted classical republican virtues
23.
Voting rights in the United States
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The issue of voting rights in the United States, specifically the enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups, has been contested throughout United States history. Eligibility to vote in the United States is established both through the constitution and by state law. Since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, the Supreme Court ruled in 1964 that both houses of all state legislatures had to be based on election districts that were relatively equal in population size, under the one man, one vote principle. In 1972, the Court ruled that state legislatures had to every ten years based on census results, at that point, many had not redistricted for decades. In the early 20th century, numerous cities established small commission forms of government in the belief that government could result from the suppression of ward politics. Commissioners were elected by the majority of voters, excluding candidates who could not afford large campaigns or who appealed to a minority, the United States Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote, allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early history of the U. S. most states allowed only white male property owners to vote. Freed slaves could vote in four states, men without property and women were largely prohibited from voting. Women could vote in New Jersey until 1807 and in local jurisdictions in other northern states. Non-white Americans could also vote in these jurisdictions, provided they could meet the property requirement, by 1856, white men were allowed to vote in all states regardless of property ownership, although requirements for paying tax remained in five states. On the other hand states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey stripped the free black males of the right to vote in the same period. Four of the fifteen post-Civil War constitutional amendments were ratified to extend voting rights to different groups of citizens, because of such state and local discriminatory practices, over time, the federal role in elections has increased, through amendments to the Constitution and enacted legislation. The right to vote is not explicitly stated in the U. S, Constitution except in the above referenced amendments, and only in reference to the fact that the franchise cannot be denied or abridged based solely on the aforementioned qualifications. In other words, the right to vote is perhaps better understood, in laymans terms, States may deny the right to vote for other reasons. For example, many states require eligible citizens to register to vote a set number of prior to the election in order to vote. More controversial restrictions include those laws that prohibit convicted felons from voting, another example, seen in Bush v. Gore, are disputes as to what rules should apply in counting or recounting ballots. A state may choose to fill an office by means other than an election, for example, upon death or resignation of a legislator, the state may allow the affiliated political party to choose a replacement to hold office until the next scheduled election. Such an appointment is often affirmed by the governor, the Constitution, in Article VI, clause 3, states that no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States
Voting rights in the United States
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U.S. Presidential popular election totals as a percentage of the total U.S. population. Note the surge in 1828 (extension of suffrage to non-property-owning free men), the drop from 1890-1910, when Southern states disenfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites, and another surge in 1920 (extension of suffrage to women).
24.
Voting age
–
A voting age is a minimum age established by law that a person must attain to be eligible to vote in a public election. Typically, the age is set at 18 years, however, ages as low as 16, most countries have set a minimum voting age, often set in their constitution. When the right to vote was first accorded in democracies the voting age was set at 21 or higher. In the 1970s the voting age was reduced to 18 in many countries, debate is currently under way in many places on proposals to reduce the voting age to or below 16. In May 2009, Danish Member of Parliament Mogens Jensen presented an initiative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg to lower the age in Europe to 16. Before the Second World War, almost all countries had voting ages of 21 or higher, czechoslovakia was early to act, reducing its age to 18 in 1946, and by 1968 a total of 17 states had made the same reduction. A large number of countries, particularly in Western Europe, reduced their voting ages to 18 during the 1970s, the USA, Canada, Australia, France and others followed soon afterwards. By the end of the 20th century,18 had become by far the most common age at which citizens acquired the right to vote, however, a few countries maintained voting ages of 20 years or higher. Eighteen-year-old men could be drafted to go to war, so people felt they should be able to vote at the age of 18. Consideration of a reduction to 18 continued into the late 20th, reductions were seen in India, Switzerland, Austria and Morocco during this time. Japan is due to make the change to 18 in 2016, a dispute is continuing in the Maldives. Around the year 2000 a number of countries began to consider whether the voting age ought to be reduced further, the earliest moves came during the 1990s, when the voting age for municipal elections in some States of Germany was lowered to 16. Lower Saxony was the first state to such a reduction, in 1995. During the 2000s several proposals for a voting age were put forward in U. S. states, including California, Florida and Alaska. A national reduction was proposed in 2005 in Canada and a reduction in New South Wales, Australia. In 2007 Austria became the first member of the European Union to adopt a voting age of 16 for most purposes, the voting age had been reduced in Austria from 19 to 18 at all levels in 1992. At that time an age of 16 was proposed by the Green Party. The voting age for elections in some states was lowered to 16 shortly after 2000
Voting age
–
Demonstration in favor of lowering the voting age by members of
NYRA Berkeley, California, 2004.
25.
Student activism
–
Student activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, some student protests focus on the internal affairs of a specific institution, others focus on broader issues such as a war or dictatorship. Student activism at the university level is nearly as old as the university itself, Students in Paris and Bologna staged collective actions as early as the 13th century, chiefly over town and gown issues. Student protests over broader political issues also have a long pedigree, in Joseon Dynasty Korea,150 Sungkyunkwan students staged an unprecedented remonstration against the king in 1519 over the Kimyo purge. In Argentina, as elsewhere in Latin America, the tradition of student activism dates back to at least the 19th century, in 1918 student activism triggered a general modernization of the universities especially tending towards democratization, called the University Revolution. The events started in Córdoba and were accompanied by uprisings across Latin America. Australian Students have a history of being active in political debates. This is particularly true in the universities that have been established in suburban areas. For much of the 20th century, the major campus organizing group across Australia was the Australian Union of Students and it was replaced by the National Union of Students in 1987. Student politics of Bangladesh is reactive, confrontational and violent, Student organizations act as the armament of the political parties they are part of. So every now and then there are affrays and commotions, over the years, political clashes and factional feuds in the educational institutes killed many, seriously hampering academic atmosphere. To check those hitches, universities have no options but go to lengthy, so classes are not completed on time and there are session jams. The student wings of ruling parties dominate the campuses and residential halls through crime and they control the residential halls to manage seats in favor of their party members and loyal pupils. They eat and buy for free from the restaurants and shops nearby and they extort and grab tenders to earn illicit money. They take money from the candidates and put pressures on teachers to get an acceptance for them. They take money from the job seekers and put pressures on university administrations to appoint them, in Canada, New Left student organizations from the late 1950s and 1960s became mainly two, SUPA and CYC. SUPA grew out of the CUCND in December 1964, at a University of Saskatchewan conference, while CUCND had focused on protest marches, SUPA sought to change Canadian society as a whole. The scope expanded to grass-roots politics in disadvantaged communities and consciousness raising to radicalize, SUPA was a decentralized organization, rooted in local university campuses
Student activism
–
City University of Hong Kong students staging sit-in during
2014 Hong Kong protests over blocking of electoral reforms
Student activism
–
Students demonstrating against university
privatization in
Athens,
Greece, 2007
Student activism
–
Shimer College students protesting threatened changes to the school's
democratic governance, 2010
Student activism
–
Tufts University students demonstrating for
disinvestment from fossil fuels, 2013
26.
Vietnam War
–
It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war. As the war continued, the actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role. U. S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, in the course of the war, the U. S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam and they viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The U. S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and this was part the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina, U. S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. Regular U. S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U. S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture, the war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North–South relations. Direct U. S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973, the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. Some 240, 000–300,000 Cambodians,20, 000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U. S. service members died in the conflict. Various names have applied to the conflict. Vietnam War is the most commonly used name in English and it has also been called the Second Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others. In Vietnamese, the war is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ. It is also called Chiến tranh Việt Nam, France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893. The 1884 Treaty of Huế formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the seven decades
Vietnam War
–
Clockwise, from top left: U.S. combat operations in
Ia Drang, ARVN Rangers defending
Saigon during the 1968
Tet Offensive, two
Douglas A-4C Skyhawks en route for airstrikes against North Vietnam after the
Gulf of Tonkin incident, ARVN recapture
Quảng Trị during the 1972
Easter Offensive, civilians fleeing the
1972 Battle of Quảng Trị, burial of 300 victims of the 1968
Huế Massacre.
Vietnam War
–
A Japanese naval officer surrenders his sword to a British Lieutenant in Saigon on 13 September 1945.
Vietnam War
–
The
Geneva Conference, 1954
Vietnam War
–
U.S. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles greet President
Ngô Đình Diệm of
South Vietnam in Washington, 8 May 1957.
27.
Supreme Court of the United States
–
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
Supreme Court of the United States
–
Chief Justice Marshall
Supreme Court of the United States
–
Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
–
The Roberts Court, October 2010 Back row (left to right):
Sonia Sotomayor,
Stephen G. Breyer,
Samuel A. Alito, and
Elena Kagan. Front row (left to right):
Clarence Thomas,
Antonin Scalia,
Chief Justice John Roberts,
Anthony Kennedy, and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court of the United States
–
Roberts, John
John Roberts (
Chief Justice)
28.
Oregon v. Mitchell
–
Oregon v. Mitchell,400 U. S.112 is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that Congress could set voter age requirements for federal elections but not for state elections. The case also upheld Congresss nationwide prohibition on tests and similar tests or devices used as voting qualifications as defined in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Petitioner Oregon was the U. S. state of that name, respondent Mitchell was John Mitchell in his role as United States Attorney General. Congress had passed an act requiring all states to register citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 as voters, Oregon did not desire to lower its voting age to 18, and filed suit on the grounds that the act was unconstitutional. States would have to two sets of voting registries, one for those between the ages of 18 through 20 and another for those 21 and older. This question became moot with the ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment the next year, which lowered the voting age to 18 for all elections in all states. Though Oregon v. List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 400 United States v. Butler,297 U. S.1 Carter v. Carter Coal Co.298 U. S.238 Cohen, congressional Power to Interpret Due Process and Equal Protection. Stanford Law Review, Vol.27, No.3, congressional Power over the Elective Franchise, The Unconstitutional Phases of Oregon v. Mitchell. Works related to Oregon v. Mitchell at Wikisource
Oregon v. Mitchell
–
Supreme Court of the United States
29.
United States Reports
–
The United States Reports are the official record of the rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceedings of the Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions of the court in each case, prepended with a prepared by the Reporter of Decisions. For lawyers, citations to United States Reports are the reference for Supreme Court decisions. Following Bluebook, a commonly accepted citation protocol, the case Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, for example, would be cited as, Brown v. Bd. of Educ. The early volumes of the United States Reports were originally published privately by the individual Supreme Court Reporters, as was the practice in England, the reports were designated by the names of the reporters who compiled them, Dallass Reports, Cranchs Reports, etc. The decisions appearing in the entire first volume and most of the volume of United States Reports are not decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Instead, they are decisions from various Pennsylvania courts, dating from the colonial period, alexander Dallas, a lawyer and journalist, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had been in the business of reporting these cases for newspapers and periodicals. He subsequently began compiling his case reports in a bound volume and this would come to be known as the first volume of Dallas Reports. Dallas continued to collect and publish Pennsylvania decisions in a volume of his Reports. When the Supreme Court began hearing cases, he added those cases to his reports, starting towards the end of the volume,2 Dallas Reports. Dallas went on to publish a total of four volumes of decisions during his tenure as Reporter, when the Supreme Court moved to Washington, D. C. in 1800, Dallas remained in Philadelphia, and William Cranch took over as unofficial reporter of decisions. In 1817, Congress made the Reporter of Decisions an official, salaried position, in 1874, the U. S. government began to fund the reports publication, creating the United States Reports. The earlier, private reports were retroactively numbered volumes 1–90 of the United States Reports, therefore, decisions appearing in these early reports have dual citation forms, one for the volume number of the United States Reports, and one for the set of nominate reports. For example, the citation to McCulloch v. Maryland is 17 U. S.316
United States Reports
–
Volumes of the United States Reports on the shelf at a
law library
30.
92nd United States Congress
–
It met in Washington, DC from January 3,1971 to January 3,1973, during the third and fourth years of Richard Nixons presidency. The apportionment of seats in this House of Representatives was based on the 1960 Census, both chambers had a Democratic majority. Passing legislation on revenue-sharing was a key event of the congress, president Richard Nixon had it listed on his list of top policies to cover for the year. Nixon signed the bill into law at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the law gained support from many state and local officials including, San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto whose city received $27 million in revenue-sharing money in the first year. December 18,1971, Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Pub. L, 92–203,85 Stat.688 December 23,1971, National Cancer Act, Pub. L. 92–218,85 Stat.778 February 7,1972, Federal Election Campaign Act, 92–225,86 Stat.3 March 24,1972, Equal Employment Opportunity Act, Pub. L. 92–261,86 Stat.103 June 23,1972, Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, 92–318,86 Stat.235 October 6,1972, Federal Advisory Committee Act, Pub. L. 92–463,86 Stat.770 October 18,1972, Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972, 92–500,86 Stat.816 October 21,1972, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Pub. L. 92–522,86 Stat.1027 October 27,1972, Consumer Product Safety Act, 92–573,86 Stat.1207 October 27,1972, Noise Control Act, Pub. L. 92–574,86 Stat.1234 October 27,1972, Coastal Zone Management Act, Changes resulting from subsequent replacements are shown below in the Changes in membership section. Arends Conference Chair, John B. Anderson Policy Committee Chairman, John Jacob Rhodes Congressional Black Caucus House Democratic Caucus This list is arranged by chamber, senators are listed in order of seniority, and Representatives are listed by district. Senators are popularly elected every two years, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress. Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, the names of members of the House of Representatives are preceded by their district numbers. The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress, white, appointed January 27,1971 Attending Physician of the United States Congress, Rufus Pearson Comptroller General of the United States, Elmer B. Staats Librarian of Congress, Lawrence Quincy Mumford Public Printer of the United States, Adolphus N. Spence Chaplain, the Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts, Congress U. S. House of Representatives, Congressional History U. S. Senate, Statistics and Lists House of Representatives Session Calendar for the 92nd Congress. Congressional Pictorial Directory for the 92nd Congress, official Congressional Directory for the 92nd Congress, 1st Session. Official Congressional Directory for the 92nd Congress, 2nd Session
92nd United States Congress
–
United States Capitol (2002)
92nd United States Congress
–
Senate Majority Leader
Mike Mansfield
31.
Harley Kilgore
–
Harley Martin Kilgore was a United States Senator from West Virginia. He was born on January 11,1893 in Brown, West Virginia and he was born to Quimby Hugh Kilgore and Laura Jo Kilgore. His father worked as an oil driller and contractor and he attended the public schools and graduated from the law department of West Virginia University at Morgantown in 1914 and was admitted to the bar the same year. He taught school in Hancock, West Virginia in 1914 and 1915 and he was the schools first principal for a year, and commenced the practice of law in Beckley, West Virginia in 1916. During the First World War he served in the infantry from 1917 and was discharged as a captain in 1920, in 1921 he organized the West Virginia National Guard and he was married to Lois Elaine Lilly in Huntington, West Virginia, in 1921. He was judge of the Raleigh County criminal court from 1933 to 1940, and was elected as a Democrat to the U. S. Senate in 1940, and won re-election twice. He was a member of the Senate from January 3,1941 until his death in Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1956. S, Mobilization efforts for World War II. He also helped establish the National Science Foundation in 1950, Senator Kilgore was West Virginias favorite-son candidate in 1948 Democratic presidential primaries and won his home state unopposed. He died on February 28,1956, aged 63 and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery, in 1942, American manufacturing expert Herbert Schimmel advised Kilgore to form a committee to centralize scientific research done for the war effort. Additionally, the organization would be able to draft scientists and facilities for the war effort, as the war neared its end, many prominent scientists feared a peacetime Kilgore plan. The scientists running the war-time Office of Scientific Research and Development sought to bypass the Kilgore Committee in forming a postwar science policy, Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington introduced a proposal based on Bushs report, Science, the Endless Frontier, in July 1945. The report contradicted much of Kilgores vision of a science-funding organization accountable to the government, Kilgore felt betrayed by Bushs failure to mention this alternate bill, and remained on hostile terms with Bush for years afterwards. At the same time, Republican Senator Alexander Smith of New Jersey introduced a bill for a more similar to Bushs vision. The Smith bill passed both houses of United States Congress, Kilgore encouraged his former colleague, now President Harry S. Truman to veto the Smith bill, in large part because of the potential it made for the military to dominate scientific research. Truman followed Kilgores advice and let the bill expire through a pocket veto, Kilgore also encouraged Truman to establish a Presidential Research Board to be led by John Steelman, former Director of the War Mobilization and Reconversion, which Truman then did in October 1946. By 1948, other agencies like the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation would now solely fund basic science. In early 1948, Truman, Steelman, and Senator Smith reached a compromise in administration of the foundation, later that year, Kilgore and Smith cosponsored the bill that President Truman would finally sign on May 10,1950 to establish the National Science Foundation. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Harley Kilgore
–
Harley Martin Kilgore
32.
77th Congress
–
It met in Washington, DC from January 3,1941 to January 3,1943, during the ninth and tenth years of Franklin Roosevelts presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Sixteenth Census of the United States in 1940, both chambers had a Democratic majority. This was the first Congress to have more than one Senate President, John Garner and Henry Wallace, march 11,1941, Lend Lease Act, Pub. L. 11,55 Stat.31 August 18,1941, Flood Control Act of 1941,377,55 Stat.638 December 8,1941, Resolution— War between United States and Japan, Pub. L. 561,55 Stat.795 December 11,1941, Resolution— War between United States and Germany, Pub. L,564,55 Stat.796 December 11,1941, Resolution— War between United States and Italy, Pub. L. 565,55 Stat.797 January 30,1942, Emergency Price Control Act of 1942,26,56 Stat.23 June 5,1942, Resolution— War between United States and Bulgaria, Pub. L. 323,56 Stat.307 June 5,1942, Resolution— War between United States and Hungary, Pub. L,324,56 Stat.307 June 5,1942, Resolution— War between United States and Romania, Pub. L. 325,56 Stat.307 June 22,1942, Resolution— United States Flag Code, including recognition of the Pledge of Allegiance,435,56 Stat.377 October 2,1942, Stabilization Act of 1942, Pub. L. The count below reflects changes from the beginning of this Congress, warren Librarian of Congress, Archibald MacLeish Public Printer of the United States, Augustus E. Giegengack Secretary, Edwin A. Halsey Sergeant at Arms, Chesley W. Sinnott Postmaster, Finis E. Official Congressional Directory for the 77th Congress, 1st Session, official Congressional Directory for the 77th Congress, 1st Session. Official Congressional Directory for the 77th Congress, 2nd Session, official Congressional Directory for the 77th Congress, 2nd Session
77th Congress
–
United States Capitol (1956)
77th Congress
–
President
Franklin Roosevelt signing the
Lend-Lease Act, March 11, 1941.
77th Congress
–
President Roosevelt delivering the "
Infamy Speech " to Congress, requesting a declaration of war, December 8, 1941. Behind him are
Vice President Henry Wallace (left) and
House Speaker Sam Rayburn. To the right, in uniform in front of Rayburn, is Roosevelt's son
James, who escorted his father to the
Capitol.
77th Congress
–
President Roosevelt signing the declaration of war against Japan, December 8, 1941
33.
Eleanor Roosevelt
–
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was an American politician, diplomat, and activist. President Harry S. Truman later called her the First Lady of the World in tribute to her human rights achievements, Roosevelt was a member of the prominent American Roosevelt and Livingston families and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt. She had a childhood, having suffered the deaths of both parents and one of her brothers at a young age. At 15, she attended Allenwood Academy in London and was influenced by its feminist headmistress Marie Souvestre. Returning to the U. S. she married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, though widely respected in her later years, Roosevelt was a controversial First Lady at the time for her outspokenness, particularly her stance on racial issues. On a few occasions, she disagreed with her husbands policies. She launched a community at Arthurdale, West Virginia, for the families of unemployed miners. She advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the rights of African Americans and Asian Americans. Following her husbands death in 1945, Roosevelt remained active in politics for the remaining 17 years of her life and she pressed the United States to join and support the United Nations and became its first delegate. She served as the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, later she chaired the John F. Kennedy administrations Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. By the time of her death, Roosevelt was regarded as one of the most esteemed women in the world, in 1999, she was ranked ninth in the top ten of Gallups List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born in 1884 at 56 West 37th Street in Manhattan, New York City, to socialites Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt, from an early age, she preferred to be called by her middle name, Eleanor. Through her father, she was a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, through her mother, she was a niece of tennis champions Valentine Gill Vallie Hall III and Edward Ludlow Hall. Her mother nicknamed her Granny because she acted in such a manner as a child. Her mother was somewhat ashamed of Eleanors plainness. Eleanor had two brothers, Elliott Jr. and Gracie Hall Roosevelt, usually called Hall. She also had a brother, Elliott Roosevelt Mann, through her fathers affair with Katy Mann. Roosevelt was born into a world of wealth and privilege
Eleanor Roosevelt
–
Eleanor and Franklin with their two eldest children
Eleanor Roosevelt
–
White House portrait
Eleanor Roosevelt
–
Roosevelt and
Fala, the Roosevelts' dog, in 1951
Eleanor Roosevelt
–
Roosevelt in 1932
34.
State of the Union
–
The State of the Union address is a speech presented by the President of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress, except in the first year of a new presidents term. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the President to outline his legislative agenda, during most of the countrys first century, the President primarily only submitted a written report to Congress. With the advent of radio and television, the address is now broadcast live across the country on most networks, although the language of this Section of the Constitution is not specific, by tradition, the President makes this report annually in late January or early February. Between 1934 and 2013 the date has been as early as January 3, before that time, most presidents delivered the State of the Union as a written report. When a presidential inauguration occurs in January, the date may be delayed until February, what began as a communication between president and Congress has become a communication between the president and the people of the United States. Since the advent of radio, and then television, the speech has been broadcast live on most networks, to reach the largest audience, the speech, once given during the day, is now typically given in the evening, after 9pm ET. George Washington delivered the first regular annual message before a joint session of Congress on January 8,1790, in New York City, in 1801, Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of delivering the address in person, regarding it as too monarchical. Instead, the address was written and then sent to Congress to be read by a clerk until 1913 when Woodrow Wilson re-established the practice despite some initial controversy, however, there have been exceptions to this rule. Presidents during the half of the 20th century have sent written State of the Union addresses. The last President to do this was Jimmy Carter in 1981, for many years, the speech was referred to as the Presidents Annual Message to Congress. The actual term State of the Union first emerged in 1934 when Franklin D. Roosevelt used the phrase, prior to 1934, the annual message was delivered at the end of the calendar year, in December. The ratification of the 20th Amendment on January 23,1933 changed the opening of Congress from early March to early January, since 1934, the message or address has been delivered to Congress in January or February. The Twentieth Amendment also established January 20 as the beginning of the presidential term, in years when a new president is inaugurated, the outgoing president may deliver a final State of the Union message, but none has done so since Jimmy Carter sent a written message in 1981. In 1953 and 1961, Congress received both a written State of the Union message from the president and a separate State of the Union speech by the incoming president. In 1936, President Roosevelt set a precedent when he delivered the address at night, only once before—when Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to order the U. S. into World War I—had a sitting president addressed Congress at night. Calvin Coolidges 1923 speech was the first to be broadcast on radio, harry S. Trumans 1947 address was the first to be broadcast on television. Johnsons address in 1965 was the first delivered in the evening, three years later, in 1968, television networks in the United States, for the first time, imposed no time limit for their coverage of a State of the Union address. Johnson, this address was followed by extensive televised commentary by, among others, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ronald Reagans 1986 State of the Union Address is the only one to have been postponed
State of the Union
–
2011 State of the Union Address given by
President Barack Obama
State of the Union
–
George Washington 's handwritten notes for the first State of the Union Address, January 8, 1790.
Full 7 pages.
State of the Union
–
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
State of the Union
–
The Sergeants at Arms of the
House (left) and
Senate (right) wait at the doorway to the House chamber before President
Barack Obama enters to deliver the
2011 State of the Union Address.
35.
Suffrage
–
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections. The right to run for office is sometimes called candidate eligibility, in many languages, the right to vote is called the active right to vote and the right to run for office is called the passive right to vote. In English, these are called active suffrage and passive suffrage. Suffrage is often conceived in terms of elections for representatives, however, suffrage applies equally to referenda and initiatives. Suffrage describes not only the right to vote, but also the practical question of whether a question will be put to a vote. The utility of suffrage is reduced when important questions are decided unilaterally by elected or non-elected representatives, in most democracies, eligible voters can vote in elections of representatives. Voting on issues by referendum may also be available, for example, in Switzerland this is permitted at all levels of government. The United States federal government does not offer any initiatives at all, Suffrage is granted to qualifying citizens once they have reached the voting age. What constitutes a qualifying citizen depends on the governments decision, resident non-citizens can vote in some countries, which may be restricted to citizens of closely linked countries. The word suffrage comes from Latin suffragium, meaning vote, political support, and the right to vote. The etymology of the Latin word is uncertain, with sources citing Latin suffragari lend support, vote for someone, from sub under + fragor crash, din, shouts. Other sources say that attempts to connect suffragium with fragor cannot be taken seriously, some etymologists think the word may be related to suffrago and may have originally meant an ankle bone or knuckle bone. Universal suffrage consists of the right to vote without restriction due to sex, race, social status, education level, or wealth. It typically does not extend the right to vote to all residents of a region, distinctions are made in regard to citizenship, age. The short-lived Corsican Republic was the first country to grant limited universal suffrage to all citizens over the age of 25 and this was followed by other experiments in the Paris Commune of 1871 and the island republic of Franceville. The 1840 constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii granted universal suffrage to all male and female adults, so Finland was the first country in the world to give all citizens full suffrage, in other words the right to vote and to run for office. New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant all citizens the right to vote, Womens suffrage is, by definition, the right of women to vote. This was the goal of the suffragists in the United States, short-lived suffrage equity was drafted into provisions of the State of New Jerseys first,1776 Constitution, which extended the Right to Vote to unwed female landholders & black land owners
Suffrage
–
Suffrage universel dédié à
Ledru-Rollin, Frédéric Sorrieu, 1850
Suffrage
–
German election poster from 1919: Equal rights - equal duties!
36.
State legislature (United States)
–
A state legislature in the United States is the legislative body of any of the 50 U. S. states. The formal name varies from state to state, in 25 states, the legislature is simply called the Legislature, or the State Legislature, while in 19 states, the legislature is called the General Assembly. In Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the legislature is called the General Court, while North Dakota, every state except Nebraska has a bicameral legislature, meaning that the legislature consists of two separate legislative chambers or houses. In each case the smaller chamber is called the Senate and is referred to as the upper house. This chamber typically, but not always, has the power to confirm appointments made by the governor. Members of the chamber represent more citizens and usually serve for longer terms than members of the larger chamber. In 41 states, the chamber is called the House of Representatives. Five states designate the larger chamber the Assembly and three states call it the House of Delegates, members of the larger chamber usually serve for terms of two years. The larger chamber customarily has the power to initiate taxing legislation. In 1964, the United States Supreme Court announced the one man, one vote standard, Nebraska originally had a bicameral legislature like the other states, but the lower house was abolished following a referendum, effective with the 1936 elections. The remaining unicameral legislature is called the Nebraska Legislature, but its members continue to be called senators, as a legislative branch of government, a legislature generally performs state duties for a state in the same way that the United States Congress performs national duties at the national level. During a legislative session, the legislature considers matters introduced by its members or submitted by the governor, businesses and other special interest organizations often lobby the legislature to obtain beneficial legislation, defeat unfavorably perceived measures, or influence other legislative action. A legislature also approves the operating and capital budgets, which may begin as a legislative proposal or a submission by the governor. Under the terms of Article V of the U. S, under Article II, state legislatures choose the manner of appointing the states presidential electors. Formerly, state legislatures appointed the U. S, Senators from their respective states until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913 required the direct election of Senators by the states voters. Generally, the bodies and their committees use either Masons Manual of Legislative Procedure or an amended form thereof. During official meetings, a parliamentarian is available to ensure that legislation. The lawmaking process begins with the introduction of a bill in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, bills may be introduced in either house, sometimes with the exception of bills increasing or decreasing revenue, which must originate in the House of Representatives
State legislature (United States)
–
The
Iowa State Capitol building, where the
Iowa General Assembly convenes
37.
Conscription
–
Conscription, or drafting, is the compulsory enlistment of people in a national service, most often a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1–8 years on active duty and those conscripted may evade service, sometimes by leaving the country. As of the early 21st century, many no longer conscript soldiers. The ability to rely on such an arrangement, however, presupposes some degree of predictability with regard to both war-fighting requirements and the scope of hostilities, many states that have abolished conscription therefore still reserve the power to resume it during wartime or times of crisis. Around the reign of Hammurabi, the Babylonian Empire used a system of conscription called Ilkum, under that system those eligible were required to serve in the royal army in time of war. During times of peace they were required to provide labour for other activities of the state. In return for service, people subject to it gained the right to hold land. It is possible that this right was not to hold land per se, various forms of avoiding military service are recorded. While it was outlawed by the Code of Hammurabi, the hiring of substitutes appears to have practiced both before and after the creation of the code. Later records show that Ilkum commitments could become regularly traded, in other places, people simply left their towns to avoid their Ilkum service. Another option was to sell Ilkum lands and the commitments along with them, with the exception of a few exempted classes, this was forbidden by the Code of Hammurabi. The levies raised in this way fought as infantry under local superiors, although the exact laws varied greatly depending on the country and the period, generally these levies were only obliged to fight for one to three months. Most were subsistence farmers, and it was in everyones interest to send the men home for harvest-time, the bulk of the Anglo-Saxon English army, called the fyrd, was composed of part-time English soldiers drawn from the landowning minor nobility. These thegns were the aristocracy of the time and were required to serve with their own armour. Medieval levy in Poland was known as the pospolite ruszenie, the system of military slaves was widely used in the Middle East, beginning with the creation of the corps of Turkish slave-soldiers by the Abbasid caliph al-Mutasim in the 820s and 830s. In the middle of the 14th century, Ottoman Sultan Murad I developed personal troops to be loyal to him, the new force was built by taking Christian children from newly conquered lands, especially from the far areas of his empire, in a system known as the devşirme
Conscription
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Ottoman
janissaries
Conscription
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Conscription of Poles to the Russian Army in 1863.
Conscription
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Young men registering for conscription during
World War I, New York City, June 5, 1917.
Conscription
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Soviet conscripts. Moscow, 1941.
38.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
39.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and emerged as a figure in world events during the mid-20th century. He directed the United States government during most of the Great Depression and he is often rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U. S. Presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt was born in 1882 to an old, prominent Dutch family from Dutchess County and he attended the elite educational institutions of Groton School, Harvard College, and Columbia Law School. At age 23 in 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, and he entered politics in 1910, serving in the New York State Senate, and then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, Roosevelt was presidential candidate James M. Coxs running mate and he was in office from 1929 to 1933 and served as a reform governor, promoting the enactment of programs to combat the depression besetting the United States at the time. In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover in a landslide to win the presidency, Roosevelt took office while in the United States was in the midst of the worst economic crisis in its history. Energized by his victory over polio, FDR relied on his persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit. He created numerous programs to support the unemployed and farmers, and to labor union growth while more closely regulating business. His support for the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 added to his popularity, the economy improved rapidly from 1933–37, but then relapsed into a deep recession in 1937–38. The bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented his packing the Supreme Court, when the war began and unemployment ended, conservatives in Congress repealed the two major relief programs, the WPA and CCC. However, they kept most of the regulations on business, along with several smaller programs, major surviving programs include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wagner Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security. His goal was to make America the Arsenal of Democracy, which would supply munitions to the Allies, in March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to Britain and China. He supervised the mobilization of the U. S. economy to support the war effort, as an active military leader, Roosevelt implemented a war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and initiate the development of the worlds first atomic bomb. His work also influenced the creation of the United Nations. Roosevelts physical health declined during the war years, and he died 11 weeks into his fourth term. One of the oldest Dutch families in New York State, the Roosevelts distinguished themselves in other than politics. One ancestor, Isaac Roosevelt, had served with the New York militia during the American Revolution, Roosevelt attended events of the New York society Sons of the American Revolution, and joined the organization while he was president
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt in 1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt in 1884, 2 years old.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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The birthplace of FDR at Springwood.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
–
Roosevelt sailing with half-niece Helen and father James, 1899.
40.
Lyndon B. Johnson
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A Democrat from Texas, he previously served as a United States Representative from 1937 to 1949 and then as a United States Senator from 1949 to 1961. He spent six years as Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader, and two more as Senate Majority Whip, Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1960 presidential election. Although unsuccessful, he was chosen by then-Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts to be his running mate and they went on to win a close election over Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Johnson was sworn in as Vice President on January 20,1961. Two years and ten months later, on November 22,1963 and he successfully ran for a full term in the 1964 election, winning by a landslide over Republican opponent Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. He is one of four people who have served as President, Vice President, Senator. Johnson was renowned for his personality and the Johnson treatment. Assisted in part by an economy, the War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during his administration. With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Johnson escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted Johnson the power to use force in Southeast Asia without having to ask for an official declaration of war. The number of American military personnel in Vietnam increased dramatically, from 16,000 advisors in non-combat roles in 1963 to 550,000 in early 1968, American casualties soared and the peace process bogged down. Growing unease with the war stimulated a large, angry antiwar movement based especially on university campuses in the U. S. and abroad. Johnson faced further troubles when summer riots broke out in most major cities after 1965, while he began his presidency with widespread approval, support for Johnson declined as the public became upset with both the war and the growing violence at home. In 1968, the Democratic Party factionalized as antiwar elements denounced Johnson, Republican Richard Nixon was elected to succeed him, as the New Deal coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years collapsed. After he left office in January 1969, Johnson returned to his Texas ranch, historians argue that Johnsons presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States after the New Deal era. Johnson is ranked favorably by some historians because of his policies and the passage of many major laws, affecting civil rights, gun control, wilderness preservation. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27,1908, near Stonewall, Texas, in a farmhouse on the Pedernales River. Johnson had one brother, Sam Houston Johnson, and three sisters, Rebekah, Josefa, and Lucia, the nearby small town of Johnson City, Texas, was named after LBJs cousin, James Polk Johnson, whose forebears had moved west from Oglethorpe County, Georgia. Johnson had English, German, and Ulster Scots ancestry and he was maternally descended from pioneer Baptist clergyman George Washington Baines, who pastored eight churches in Texas, as well as others in Arkansas and Louisiana
Lyndon B. Johnson
–
Johnson in 1964
Lyndon B. Johnson
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Lyndon Johnson with his trademark cowboy hat—age seven
Lyndon B. Johnson
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Johnson's boss, U.S. Rep. Richard Kleberg
Lyndon B. Johnson
–
LCDR Johnson, March 1942
41.
Ted Kennedy
–
Edward Moore Ted Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. He was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and was the senator in United States history. Ted Kennedy was the most prominent living member of the Kennedy family for many years and he was the youngest brother of US President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, both victims of assassination, and the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy. Kennedy entered the Senate in a November 1962 special election to fill the seat held by his brother John. He was elected to a full term in 1964 and was re-elected seven more times. The Chappaquiddick incident on July 18,1969 resulted in the death of his automobile passenger, Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence. The incident and its aftermath hindered his chances of becoming president of the United States. His one attempt, in the 1980 presidential election, resulted in a Democratic primary campaign loss to incumbent President Jimmy Carter, Kennedy was known for his oratorical skills. His 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert and his 1980 rallying cry for modern American liberalism were among his best-known speeches and he became recognized as The Lion of the Senate through his long tenure and influence. More than 300 bills that Kennedy and his staff wrote were enacted into law, during the 2000s, he led several unsuccessful immigration reform efforts. Over the course of his Senate career and continuing into the Obama administration, Kennedy continued his efforts to enact health care. In May 2008, Kennedy was hospitalized suffering a seizure and was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He died on August 25,2009, at his Hyannis Port, by the later years of his life, he had come to be viewed as a major figure and spokesman for American progressivism. Edward Moore Kennedy was born on February 22,1932 at St. Margarets Hospital in the Dorchester section of Boston and his eight elder siblings included Joseph Jr. John, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, and Jean. John asked to be the godfather, a request his parents honored. They named him after their fathers assistant instead and his formal education started at Gibbs School, in Sloane Street, Kensington, London. He attended ten different schools by the age of eleven, with his suffering as a result. At age seven, he received his First Communion from Pope Pius XII in the Vatican and he spent sixth and seventh grades in the Fessenden School, where he was a mediocre student, and eighth grade at Cranwell Preparatory School, both schools were in Massachusetts
Ted Kennedy
–
Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
–
John,
Robert, and Ted Kennedy, July 1960, during JFK's presidential campaign
Ted Kennedy
–
First Senate campaign, 1962
Ted Kennedy
–
Ted Kennedy in 1967
42.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
–
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the Civil Rights Movement on August 6,1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections. According to the U. S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of civil rights legislation enacted in the country. The Act contains numerous provisions that regulate election administration, the Acts general provisions provide nationwide protections for voting rights. Section 2 is a provision that prohibits every state and local government from imposing any voting law that results in discrimination against racial or language minorities. Other general provisions specifically outlaw literacy tests and similar devices that were used to disenfranchise racial minorities. The Act also contains provisions that apply to only certain jurisdictions. Another special provision requires jurisdictions containing significant language minority populations to provide bilingual ballots, Section 5 and most other special provisions apply to jurisdictions encompassed by the coverage formula prescribed in Section 4. The coverage formula was designed to encompass jurisdictions that engaged in egregious voting discrimination in 1965. In Shelby County v. Holder, the U. S. Supreme Court struck down the formula as unconstitutional. The Court did not strike down Section 5, but without a coverage formula, as initially ratified, the United States Constitution granted each state complete discretion to determine voter qualifications for its residents. After the Civil War, the three Reconstruction Amendments were ratified and limited this discretion and these Amendments also empower Congress to enforce their provisions through appropriate legislation. To enforce the Reconstruction Amendments, Congress passed the Enforcement Acts in the 1870s, the Acts criminalized the obstruction of a citizens voting rights and provided for federal supervision of the electoral process, including voter registration. However, in 1875 the Supreme Court struck down parts of the legislation as unconstitutional in United States v. Cruikshank, after the Reconstruction Era ended in 1877, enforcement of these laws became erratic, and in 1894, Congress repealed most of their provisions. Southern states generally sought to disenfranchise racial minorities during and after Reconstruction, from 1868 to 1888, electoral fraud and violence throughout the South suppressed the African-American vote. During this period, the Supreme Court generally upheld efforts to discriminate against racial minorities, in Giles v. Harris, the Court held that irrespective of the Fifteenth Amendment, the judiciary did not have the remedial power to force states to register racial minorities to vote. In the 1950s, the Civil Rights Movement increased pressure on the government to protect the voting rights of racial minorities. In 1957, Congress passed the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, although these acts helped empower courts to remedy violations of federal voting rights, strict legal standards made it difficult for the Department of Justice to successfully pursue litigation
Voting Rights Act of 1965
–
Alabama police in 1965 attack voting rights marchers participating in the first of the
Selma to Montgomery marches, which became known as "Bloody Sunday"
Voting Rights Act of 1965
–
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965
–
President
Lyndon B. Johnson,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and
Rosa Parks at the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965
–
President
George W. Bush signs amendments to the Act in July 2006
43.
Richard Nixon
–
Richard Milhous Nixon was an American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974, when he became the only U. S. president to resign from office. He had previously served as a U. S, Representative and Senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, after completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife Pat moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government and he subsequently served on active duty in the U. S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950 and his pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president and he waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968, he ran for the presidency again and was elected by defeating incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, and ended the military draft. His administration generally transferred power from Washington D. C. to the states and he imposed wage and price controls for a period of ninety days, enforced desegregation of Southern schools and established the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon also presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing, which signaled the end of the moon race and he was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U. S. history in 1972, when he defeated George McGovern. The year 1973 saw an Arab oil embargo, gasoline rationing, the scandal escalated, costing Nixon much of his political support, and on August 9,1974, he resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office. After his resignation, he was issued a pardon by his successor, in retirement, Nixons work writing several books and undertaking of many foreign trips helped to rehabilitate his image. He suffered a stroke on April 18,1994. Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9,1913 in Yorba Linda, California and his parents were Hannah Nixon and Francis A. Nixon. His mother was a Quaker and his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith, Nixons upbringing was marked by evangelical Quaker observances of the time, such as refraining from alcohol, dancing, and swearing. Nixon had four brothers, Harold, Donald, Arthur, four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in historical or legendary England, Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart. Nixons early life was marked by hardship, and he quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood, We were poor. The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the moved to Whittier
Richard Nixon
–
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
–
The infant Richard stands outside the Nixons' Yorba Linda Home (early 1914), looking toward what is today the
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Richard Nixon
–
Nixon (second from right) makes his newspaper debut in 1916, contributing five cents to a fund for war orphans.
Donald is to the left of his brother.
Richard Nixon
–
Nixon at
Whittier High School in 1930.
44.
Texas
–
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
Texas
–
Sam Rayburn Reservoir
Texas
–
Flag
Texas
–
Texas Hill Country
Texas
–
Big Bend National Park.
45.
Equal Protection Clause
–
The Equal Protection Clause is part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The meaning of the Equal Protection Clause has been the subject of much debate and this clause was the basis for Brown v. The Equal Protection Clause itself applies only to state and local governments, however, the Supreme Court held in Bolling v. Sharpe that equal protection requirements apply to the federal government through the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Before and during the Civil War, the Southern states violated the rights of speech of pro-Union citizens, anti-slavery advocates. During the Civil War, the Southern states stripped many white citizens of their citizenship and banished them from the states. Shortly after the Union victory in the American Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in 1865, many ex-Confederate states then adopted Black Codes following the war. These laws severely restricted the rights of blacks to hold property, including property and many forms of personal property. These codes also created harsher criminal penalties for blacks than for whites, because of the inequality these Black Codes imposed, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This Act provided that all born in the United States were citizens. Full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, president Andrew Johnson Vetoed the Civil Rights bill of 1866 amid concerns that Congress did not have the constitutional authority to pass such a law. Such doubts were one factor that led Congress to begin to draft, moreover, Congress wanted to protect white Unionists who were under personal and legal attack in the former Confederacy. The effort was led by the Radical Republicans of both houses of Congress, including John Bingham, Charles Sumner, and Thaddeus Stevens, the most important among these, however, was Bingham, a Congressman from Ohio, who drafted the language of the Equal Protection Clause. The Southern states were opposed to the Civil Rights Act, but in 1865 Congress, exercising its power under Article I, section 5, clause 1 of the Constitution, to be the Judge of the. Qualifications of its own Members, had excluded Southerners from Congress, declaring that their states, having rebelled against the Union, could therefore not elect members to Congress. It was this fact that the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted by a rump Congress—that allowed the Equal Protection Clause to be passed by Congress. Its ratification by the former Confederate states was made a condition of their reacceptance into the Union, during the debate in Congress, more than one version of the clause was considered. Here is the first version, The Congress shall have power to all laws which shall be necessary
Equal Protection Clause
–
Congressman
John Bingham of
Ohio was the principal framer of the Equal Protection Clause.
Equal Protection Clause
–
The Court that decided Plessy
Equal Protection Clause
–
The
U.S. Supreme Court Building opened in 1935, inscribed with the words "
Equal Justice Under Law " which were inspired by the Equal Protection Clause.
46.
Katzenbach v. Morgan
–
Prior to the 1960s, many US states and municipalities used literacy tests to disenfranchise minorities. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, among other provisions, the Voting Rights Act made some literacy tests illegal. By a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court sided with Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, reversed the District Court, Justice Brennan applied the appropriateness standard of McCulloch v. Maryland to determine whether the legislation passed constitutional muster. Section 4 arguably expanded rights beyond what the Court had recognized in Lassiter, in doing so, he has often been credited with introducing the ratchet theory for congressional legislation enacted under Section 5. It held that Congress could ratchet up civil rights beyond what the Court had recognized, the ratchet theory essentially set judicially recognized rights as a support on which Congress could expand if it so chose. According to the theory, Brennans opinion allowed for multiple interpreters of the Fourteenth Amendment, in dissent, Justice Harlan criticized the ratchet theory and the idea of multiple interpreters of the 14th Amendment. Harlan relied on the separation of powers doctrine to argue that allowing Congress to interpret the 14th Amendment undercut the power of the judiciary and he objected to Congress having the power to interpret the 14th Amendment substantively. Harlan argued that the use of Section 5 power was the enforcement of judicially-recognized 14th Amendment rights. Katzenbach v. Morgan is an example of judicial deference to Congressional authority. It allowed Congress great latitude in use of Section 5, by striking down the state application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, it addressed the separation of powers concerns that had been voiced earlier by Harlan. List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 384 Soltero, Carlos R. Katzenbach v. Morgan and voting rights of Puerto Ricans, latinos and American Law, Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Austin, TX, University of Texas Press, text of Katzenbach v. Morgan,384 U. S.641 is available from, Findlaw Justia
Katzenbach v. Morgan
–
Supreme Court of the United States
47.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
American Civil War
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New Orleans the largest cotton exporting port for New England and Great Britain textile mills, shipping Mississippi River Valley goods from North, South and Border states.
American Civil War
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Clockwise from top:
Battle of Gettysburg,
Union Captain John Tidball's artillery,
Confederate prisoners,
ironclad USS Atlanta, ruins of
Richmond, Virginia,
Battle of Franklin
American Civil War
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Sen. Stephen Douglas, author of the
Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854
American Civil War
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Sen. John J. Crittenden, of the 1860
Crittenden Compromise
48.
George Gallup
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George Horace Gallup was an American pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the Gallup poll, a successful statistical method of survey sampling for measuring public opinion. Gallup was born in Jefferson, Iowa, the son of Nettie Quella and George Henry Gallup, as a teen, George Jr. known then as Ted, would deliver milk and used his salary to start a newspaper at the high school, where he also played football. He earned his B. A. in 1923, his M. A. in 1925 and he then moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where he served as head of the Department of Journalism at Drake University until 1931. That year, he moved to Evanston, Illinois, as a professor of journalism, the next year, he moved to New York City to join the advertising agency of Young and Rubicam as director of research. He was also professor of journalism at Columbia University, but he had to give up this position shortly after he formed his own polling company, Gallup is often credited as the developer of public polling. In 1932, Gallup did some polling for his mother-in-law, Ola Babcock Miller, with the Democratic landslide of that year, she won a stunning victory, furthering Gallups interest in politics. In 1936, his new organization achieved national recognition by correctly predicting, from the replies of only 50,000 respondents and this was in direct contradiction to the widely respected Literary Digest magazine whose poll based on over two million returned questionnaires predicted that Landon would be the winner. Not only did Gallup get the right, he correctly predicted the results of the Literary Digest poll as well using a random sample smaller than theirs. Twelve years later, his organization had its moment of greatest ignominy, Gallup believed the error was mostly due to ending his polling three weeks before Election Day. In 1947, he launched the Gallup International Association, an association of polling organizations. In 1948, with Claude E. Robinson, he founded Gallup and Robinson, in 1958, Gallup grouped all of his polling operations under what became The Gallup Organization. Gallup died in 1984 of an attack at his summer home in Tschingel. He was buried in Princeton Cemetery and his wife died in 1988, and their son, writer and pollster George Gallup, Jr. died in 2011. Approval rating The Gallup Organization Gallup & Robinson George H. Gallup House Gallup International Association Cantril, gauging Public Opinion Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds. Public Opinion, 1935–1946, massive compilation of public opinion polls from US, UK, Canada, Australia. Online Converse, Jean M. Survey Research in the United States, Roots and Emergence 1890–1960, moscow, Foley, Ryan J. Gallup Papers Give Glimpse into US Polling History, Associated Press Gallup, George. Public Opinion in a Democracy Gallup, Alec M. ed, the Gallup Poll Cumulative Index, Public Opinion, 1935–1997 lists 10, 000+ questions, but no results Gallup, George Horace, ed. The Gallup Poll, Public Opinion, 1935–19713 vol summarizes results of each poll, taking the Pulse of Democracy, George Gallup, Iowa, and the Origin of the Gallup Poll
George Gallup
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George Gallup on a 2001 Romania stamp
George Gallup
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George Gallup
George Gallup
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Grave in Princeton Cemetery
49.
National Archives and Records Administration
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The NARA also transmits votes of the Electoral College to Congress. The chief administrator of NARA is the Archivist of the United States, the Archivist of the United States is the chief official overseeing the operation of the National Archives and Records Administration. The Archivist not only maintains the official documentation of the passage of amendments to the U. S, Constitution by state legislatures, but has the authority to declare when the constitutional threshold for passage has been reached, and therefore when an act has become an amendment. The Office of the Federal Register publishes the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations and it also administers the Electoral College. Since 1964, the NHPRC has awarded some 4,500 grants, the Office of Government Information Services is a Freedom of Information Act resource for the public and the government. Congress has charged NARA with reviewing FOIA policies, procedures and compliance of Federal agencies, NARAs mission also includes resolving FOIA disputes between Federal agencies and requesters. Originally, each branch and agency of the U. S. government was responsible for maintaining its own documents, Congress established the National Archives Establishment in 1934 to centralize federal record keeping, with the Archivist of the United States as chief administrator. The National Archives was incorporated with GSA in 1949, in 1985 it became an independent agency as NARA, connor, began serving in 1934, when the National Archives was established by Congress. As a result of a first Hoover Commission recommendation, in 1949 the National Archives was placed within the newly formed General Services Administration. The Archivist served as an official to the GSA Administrator until the National Archives. An audit indicated that more than one third withdrawn since 1999 did not contain sensitive information, the program was originally scheduled to end in 2007. In 2011, a retired employee pleaded guilty to stealing original sound recordings from the archives, Archival Recovery Teams investigate the theft of records. NARAs holdings are classed into record groups reflecting the governmental department or agency from which they originated, Records include paper documents, microfilm, still pictures, motion pictures, and electronic media. Archival descriptions of the permanent holdings of the government in the custody of NARA are stored in the National Archives Catalog. The archival descriptions include information on traditional paper holdings, electronic records, as of December 2012, the catalog consisted of about 10 billion logical data records describing 527,000 artifacts and encompassing 81% of NARAs records. There are also 922,000 digital copies of already digitized materials, most records at NARA are in the public domain, as works of the federal government are excluded from copyright protection. However, records from other sources may still be protected by copyright or donor agreements and its Information Security Oversight Office monitors and sets policy for the U. S. governments security classification system. Many of NARAs most requested records are used for genealogy research
National Archives and Records Administration
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Rotunda of the National Archives Building
National Archives and Records Administration
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Seal
National Archives and Records Administration
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The
National Archives Building from
Constitution Avenue
National Archives and Records Administration
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NARA facility near the
University of Maryland, College Park
50.
United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures
United States Senate
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United States Senate
United States Senate
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Seal of the U.S. Senate
United States Senate
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The Senate side of the
United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
United States Senate
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A typical Senate desk
